Bin Bags & Broomsticks

I remember Halloween when i was small... It was always windy and it was ALWAYS pissin rain.. Luckily for me & my sisters though we were unknowingly prepared. How? Because of our costumes we were weather proof...
Boys got - black trackie bottoms, black top & a mask of their choice..
Girls got -  black bottoms, a big black plastic bin bag with head & arm holes cut out, backcombed hair doused in flour or baby powder and green stuff all over our faces.. If you were really into Halloween you got those rubber witch fingers with the red fingernails that glow in the dark & maybe a glow in the dark witch nose (that got clammy & moist) with the elasticed band (that cut into your face) & not forgetting the broomstick with the bamboo handle & the straw brush bit that left a trail all over the house.. We looked a show but we thought we looked brilliant...

Halloween costumes for kids today are totally different...Only the people off the telly from America would have these kinda costumes when I was small...

For the girls they have fairy wings with glitter & feathery bits.. witch's frocks with that meshy stuff in all different colours and shiny trimmings & puffy shoulders... they even have stockings to match, stick on nails with spiderweb designs made especially to fit little fingernails. Everything is down to the smallest detail..

For the boys you have superhero suits with padded muscles that would outshine Simon Cowell's peck implants anyday, cowboy outfits with all the frills and monster costumes ranging from Frankenstein's monster to the guy from the Scream movies to zombies & vampires... Fantastic stuff for kids and usually around the €10 mark some can be less others can be waaaaaayyy more...

And Halloween isn't just for the kids anymore either...
For the 'grown-ups' you can be anything.. like, literally anything.. you can be boring and dress like a monster or a witch or you can be 'like, OMG like, TOTALLY RANDOM!!! Hey lets be an M&M or Eminem..' You can be a rockstar or just a rock... grab a partner and you can go as the guys from the 11811 ads or the Mario brothers or feck it... go as a pair of balls and see how many times you have to explain your costume creating genius to people who 'just don't get it?!?'...

For the ladies.. you can be any animal in the natural world with a pair of ears atop your skull, a tail stickin outta your backside & your best pair of frilly knickers (I think a similar description is found in the Mean Girls movie)... You can be a police woman, a nurse, a cat or a unicorn that farts rainbows if you like so long as you're sqwuzz into whatever you're wearing, with your arse hangin out the back and your boobs pouring out @ the top... basically costumes that you used only see in 70s porn movies... go by those exact guidelines you will Look. Just. Fab-ah-lush!!

All these kinda costumes didn't even exist in Ireland when i was small (or so we were lead to believe anyway).. our costumes were of a different standard altogether...
This year after seeing the costumes in the shops and lookin on ebay.. i decided they're all too expensive and as usual all the coolest & cutest stuff is in America anyway and the shipping costs a fortune... So I'm making my child's costume myself like my parents did (in the olden days ha!)... I'll save myself money (or so i thought) and no one else will have the same costume... I'm making a wolf costume like the one the little boy, Max, wears in the book Where The Wild Things Are... (for some reason quite alot of people i told don't know this book....Me- 'It was made into a movie last year or the year before?!?'... Them - 'Ooooohh i know what your on about now'... me - 'You don't really do ya?'... them -'No.' me- *_* )... so here's a picture.

And here is Max in his wolf costume..

I tried lookin on the net for a pattern, found tonnes of them but then i realised I couldn't follow a pattern to save my life so.. i got a baby grow and went on used that as a template.. w/o cutting it mind.. It was the first thing i ever put on Cillian so i was in my eye gonna make bits of it... mammy sentimentality & all that...

Here's my basic pattern that I made up myself

I just done this on the paint thingy on my computer so its not perfect but if u wanna make it u can just draw a larger version with your own or your child's measurements to hand... I had to wait til my child was asleep cos he reacted to the measuring tape like u would to a hot poker... Anyway everything but the tail is made from fleece... the tail is faux fur which i'm currently waitin for thru ebay so... this is how i put what i have together.

You'll need:

Fleece - I got a metre and a half for Cillian he's a tall 2yr old and I'd some left over

Thread & needle...or if you're lucky enuf to have a sewing machine you're sorted & will have this finished in no time

Faux fur - for the tail

4 or 5 buttons - i used 4 cos they buttons i chose came in pairs @ €2 a pair

Elastic - optional for the hands & feet. I used it cos i made the suit bigger than it needed to be so we'd get sum use out of it & the elastic at the bottoms of the legs keeps it from being walked on as much. It'll still get dirty though - I'm using white fleece.. He's 2... durrrrr!!!

I used parchment/greeseproof paper from the kitchen to draw up my pattern, cut it out and pinned it to the sheet of fleece.. then cut around it... now for my instructiony bit:

• Match the front pieces to the back piece making sure the right sides are facing each other... so that when u sow it together & turn it outside out all the nice fluffy side of the fleece is on the outside of the suit... if you get me? The easiest thing to do is - lie the back bit on the floor with the fluffy side facing up. then put the put the front pieces on top with the fluffy side facing down.. pin & sow along where i have the dotted lines. NOTE: leave spaces open for the head, arms & feet. Turn outside out to make sure everything is the right way. Turn inside out again & put to one side.
• Sow the arms into like a tube shape leaving both ends open. Make sure the fluffy side is on the inside of the tube before sowing... once finished sowing up into a tube, turn outside out. Put aside. The rounded end will be attached to the body piece & the narrow end is where the hand will pop out.
• Place the two sides of the hood together making shur the fluffy sides of each piece are facing each other. Sow along the curved side &top of the hood, leaving the bottom & front of the hood open.
• With the ears match 2 pieces each together, fluffy bits facing each other and sow up both sides leaving the bottom open. You can stuff them later & sow them if you like but I found that by leaving them open and sowing them the the silts in to hood while making sure i didn't sow up the hole, helped make them stand up straight & pointy.
• To sow the ears to the hood, turn them outside out, the hood stays inside out and just feed them through the slits and sow the edge of the slit to the edge of the open end of the ear.
• To attach the arms/sleeves to the body of the suit lie the body flat. Lift back one of the front pieces & place the sleeve (which is outside out) underneath . Line the rounded end of the sleeve up to the space left for it and close down the front piece again. Then sow the edge of the round end of the sleeve around the space left for the arm. Please don't sow it shut. Do the same with the other sleeve.
• Match the bottom hood (inside out) up the the neck of the body (also inside out) & sow up the edges.
• Sow on the buttons and cut some button holes to match them.
• Hem around the hands, feet, hood face & along each side of the front opening to tidy everything up and you're done really apart from the tail. Which would just be the same as doin the sleeve (fur inside the tube) except you close up the tip of the tail. Turn outside out and attach it to the body like you did with the sleeve... I'm still waiting for my fur in the post so i don't have this done myself yet.

I added whiskers to the one i made around the face of the hood. I used a very light wire that is used for making jewellery but pipe cleaners could be used too. You can also add a gold crown made of card if you want like the one Max get from the wild things when they make him their king.

 I can't seem to find gold card that's big enuf anywhere... If i can't find it i couldn't give a rat's arse @ this stage because this suit (that i thought was the cheaper option) has cost a small fortune to make... Fleece cost about ten quid, faux fur - €6 incl p+p, buttons - €4... so far that's €20 right, not including the wire i got on ebay cos i didn't like the look of pipe cleaners.... the thread is like €1.70 a roll...add to that pins & needles(actual pins & needles) as well as a dead arse... about 20hrs of sewing everything by hand cos i don't own a sewing machine... god knows how many times i pricked my fingers, my shoulder was in bits from pulling up the thread... I hardly ate cos i got so engrossed in finishing the fuckin thing (not that, that would do me any harm) and having to wash the thing twice already cos Cillian got it manky both times i tried it on him (for 2mins) while putting it together to make sure it fits.

He likes it though he curls up in a ball on the floor, lookin all snug, for about 5mins & then wants it off again. But hey he looks so cute for those 5mins it's worth it i suppose... *eye roll*

Anyway I'm goin now, mommy has a massive headache and staring @ a computer screen doesn't help... bye for now